BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Inflation climbs to 12.56%, Nigeria loses $454m in weeks; See other stories that made our pick

Hello, and welcome to Business Roundup this week. Here, we bring you highlights of events that happened during the week -from the capital market, mainstream business activities while not forgetting the tech/economy build up.

Here are the Headlines:

• 42% of Nigerians lost jobs during lockdown —World Bank
• Inflation climbs to 25-month high of 12.56%
• Nigeria’s foreign reserves shed $454m in 6 weeks
• Naira falls to N470 per dollar at parallel market

 Summary:

The World Bank Thursday revealed that around 42% of the Nigeria’s workforce lost their jobs between March and June following the shutdown of the economy in the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak.

Ahmed Rostom, Senior Financial Sector Specialist, World Bank, made the disclosure at the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) Webinar Series’ virtual knowledge sharing series titled ‘Risk Sharing: A Key Driver for Increased Financial Access and Economic Development for MSMEs.’ Read more

Nigeria’s Consumer Price Index, which measures inflation using the weighted average price of a basket of a number of consumer essentials, jumped 0.16% higher to 12.56% in June, its highest point in 25 months, the statistics office said Friday.

Nigeria’s Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures inflation using the weighted average price of a basket of staples and other consumer essentials, jumped 0.16% higher to 12.56% in June, its highest point in more than two years, the statistics office said Friday. Read more

Read also: BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Nigeria’s debt hits N28.63tn; DisCos lose N14bn monthly to NERC’s tariff; See other stories that made our pick

Nigeria’s foreign reserves depleted by $454 million from $36.572 billion to $36.118 billion in the 45-day period between 1st June and 15th July, latest data from Central Bank of Nigeria’s website showed on Thursday.

The country’s external reserves have been buckling under pressure since the year began, taking a double whammy of dwindling oil receipts from the recent oil crash and disruption of trade and investment caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which led to sharp fall of $9 billion year to 22nd June. Read more

The exchange rate of naira closed at N470 to the United States’ dollar at the unofficial parallel market on Wednesday, signalling a 1.1% markdown from that at which it ended trade at the session before, which was N465, data gleaned from forex market intelligence website, ABOKIFX reveals.

Dollar hit its intraday low of N465 and high of N470, eventually settling for the latter as trade wound down. In the same vein, the local currency eased at the over-the-counter spot market alternatively called the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window or NAFEX where it was quoted weaker at N386.50 against the previous session rate of N386. Read more

On NSE ROUNDUP: Investor sentiments weak as year-to-date loss hits N289bn

The equity market of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) racked up further loss this week following a decline in the total value of stocks by N9.757 billion, meaning so far this year, the bourse has depreciated by N288.502 billion or 9.52%.

Only the Industrial Index has recorded positive returns of the 5 sectors assessed, with the Banking Index posting the worst performance, having crumbled by as much 23.75% this year.

A negative market breadth was recorded this week as 36 losers emerged against 26 gainers. The All Share Index (ASI) and the Market Capitalisation both increased by 1.99% to 24,336.12 basis points and N12.695 trillion respectively. Read more

Thanks for joining the roundup this week. See you next week for another serving of Business Roundup. Don’t forget, for the latest news and updates from around the globe, keep reading Ripples Nigeria.

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